Mental Health and Well-Being

Employee Resilience Program® (ERP®)

ACLED recognizes that in their work everyone can experience situations that affect their resilience and well-being, especially while working in the sphere of conflict prevention. Resilience is the ability to withstand difficulty and change. Because of the work we do, maintaining resilience is especially important and can be challenging. This is true for all ACLED staff regardless of location or role within the organization. ACLED has partnered with The KonTerra Group to provide the ERP®. KonTerra specializes in supporting international humanitarian and development organizations. 

Beginning December 1, 2023 all ACLED staff have access to free confidential counseling sessions on a variety of topics related to maintaining your personal resilience and well-being. Speaking confidentially with a trained, objective counselor is a form of support that many people find helpful.

Program details include:

• There is no cost to you. The service is fully paid for by ACLED.

• You have access to individual counseling support. All ACLED staff have access to 4 counseling sessions per event. Limit to 1 event per calendar year.

• It is confidential. No one at ACLED will know that you have accessed support unless you choose to share this information. ACLED will receive utilization reports but no names, phone numbers, email addresses or other information that could be used to identify people using the program will be shared.

• It is an independent, impartial source of support. The ERP® is completely independent and does not represent any organization, including ACLED.

The service is available via email acled@konterragroup.net, or smartphone KonTerra Connect App for iOS and Android. Please review the Flyer and Frequently Asked Questions for more information. Managers can also access confidential Manager Consultation sessions through the ERP; further details are available in the Manager Consultations Flyer. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact your supervisor or HR (a.iordanova@acleddata.com).

Additional KonTerra Resources

We are please to share a newly available resource from KonTerra: Coping with Transition: Building Resilience in Times of Change. This guide helps normalize common emotional responses to change using well-established transition models. It also offers practical strategies for regaining a sense of control, creating stability through routines, and supporting yourself and others through transition. 

Digital Resilience Training

Our researchers work with sensitive materials every week, materials that might affect them and cause significant stress. Working remotely, without the support of colleagues working on similar issues/in the same environment, can be a further stressor and can exacerbate the negative effects.

Given the potential toll that this kind of work can take, we want to support anyone experiencing stress symptoms and strengthen peer-to-peer relationships and support. To do so, we partnered with Agnes Otzelberger, a trainer and facilitator with an interest in and experience conducting training in workplace stress, burnout, empathic distress (“compassion fatigue”), and vicarious trauma and developed training to address these matters. 

Agnes developed a concise orientation for ACLED staff members to give clarity on important questions on therapy and counselling. You are welcome to watch the Video introduction below and review the Orientation document.